I am a counseling
psychologist with experience in psychotherapy/counseling
(individuals, group, and relationship/couples) and psychological assessment (including ADHD,
learning disability, and mood/personality disorders).
I have worked with many different
presenting concerns including: depression, anxiety, eating
disorders, obsessive compulsive disorder, partner relationship
problems, trauma, gender transition, and much more. I have
particular expertise in treating LGBTQ+ individuals and couples.

I especially enjoy working with clients/patients
representing a wide range of diversity from 5-75 years of age and from
many different races, ethnicities, religions, genders, sexual
orientations, and abilities. I am in private
practice in New Orleans. I have previously worked at a number
of University counseling centers, a children's mental health
hospital, a community counseling center, and a long term residential
treatment facility. I graduated
with my PhD and Master's Degree in Counseling
Psychology from the University of Missouri-Kansas City (UMKC).
I have also
taught numerous undergraduate and graduate courses in psychology and
counseling at UMKC and Xavier University New Orleans.

My
counseling theory is primarily
psychodynamic/psychoanalytic
and is also holistic: working with thoughts, emotions,
behaviors, personal history, culture, relationships, dreams, and
early memories. My style of therapy pays special attention to the
unconscious factors that are contributing to your specific
challenges. Frequency of therapy ranges from 1-2 times per month to 2-3 times
per week (depending on finances, availability, and preference).
For more about my approach to therapy, please visit my "Therapy
Services" page.

I am a strong advocate for social
justice,
"actively making the world an equitable place for all."
Social justice involves balancing the resources, opportunity, and
power of all people so that minority groups of all kinds can enjoy
all the same privileges of the majority. It means ending
discrimination both on individual/personal levels as well as the
systemic level. I pay particular attention to issues of
discrimination and prejudice in therapy and in my personal life.

In addition to
therapy and testing, I am available to provide professional trainings, presentations, and
consultation on general diversity issues, specific LGBTQ+ issues (including
trainings about transgender and non-binary individuals), and other mental
health concerns such as: stress management, effective communication, and
conflict resolution.

Social Justice Scales
Created by Dr. Kizer

I have developed two scales to
measure counselor's attitudes towards social justice advocacy
outside of the individual therapeutic session. Further
information about these scales, including full psychometric data can
be found in my
dissertation, published through the University of Missouri-Kansas
City:https://mospace.umsystem.edu/xmlui/handle/10355/11362

The Counselor's Attitudes Toward Social Justice Scale (CATSJ-S)
is a brief 5 item measure to assess counselor's attitudes
regarding general social justice advocacy outside of the
therapeutic session.CATSJ-S.pdf

The Lesbian and Gay Affirming Social Justice Competency
Scale(LGASJC-S)
is a 28 item measure to assess attitudes and actions that
specifically work towards social justice for gay men and
lesbians. This scale measures the following lesbian and
gay affirming social justice competencies: (1)
self-efficacy, (2) attitudes, (3) actions, and (4) awareness.